The Mbira Metaphor: Inspiring Creative Thinking through Folktale

Abstract

The paper presents the author’s views on inspiring creative thinking among stu-dents through a folktale. The mbira metaphor is this author’s interpretation of a unique African (Shona) folktale that has the potential to enrich the pedagogy of giftedness. The mbira metaphor is an informative and thought-provoking folktale originating from previous studies on Shona culture’s views of giftedness. The rec-ognition of the mbira folktale as a metaphor that has the potential to enrich gifted programming follows new thinking in research that values the contribution of so-ciocultural perspectives to our understanding of giftedness and creativity. The author recommends that the mbira metaphor be used in gifted programming to in-spire creative thinking among students.